Living the Frugal Life with Children

[Beatrice]

A nice post from the Simple Green Frugal Co-op on frugality/voluntary simplicity with kids (http://simple-green-frugal-co-op.blogspot.com/2009/04/living-frugal-life-with-children.html).


A lot of my friends have shared with me that before they had children they were able to lead a frugal life, but it all went out the window once their children arrived. Other friends have said it was easy to be frugal with a baby if you breastfed and used cloth nappies but once the children were of pre-school age it became impossible. I've cared for up to four children at a time on one income and at the beginning of this journey I would of agreed, however I then learned that it is very possible to provide a very good childhood with plenty of fun activities and enrichment on a very small budget! Here is how!Do you have any ideas or thoughts to add?

[keztol]

Art galleries & the museum (once it finally reopens!) are free in our area.
Visiting parks, beaches etc.
Creating with "junk" - eg toilet paper rolls, empty boxes etc.
The library! Ours does school holiday activities either free or at reasonable prices (eg $5) as well as borrowing books, DVDs, CDs etc.

Looking forward to hearing other suggestions!

[Ceres]

It's definitely harder to be frugal now than when he was a baby, but not impossible. A lot of the most fun activities are free (library, park, beach, national park, museum) but there are so many good quality activities that cost a lot but are still worth it.
Another thing that is way more expensive now - clothing. When he was a baby he was pretty much exclusively dressed in hand-me-downs and op-shopped clothing. At size 5, the op-shop stuff is slim pickings and quite hard to find without obvious gendering and offensive pictures. He has a lot more new clothing than he's had at any other age.
And of course, food. They eat SO much now (well one of them more than the other..) and while I can grow a lot of vegies, the supermarket bill has pretty much doubled with milk, cheese, bread etc.
I'd say compared to most families we live very frugally but there are plenty of things we could still cut back on.

[keztol]

Ceres - I kwym re food - my 7yo boy seems to eat from the time he gets up to when he goes to bed! I'm not looking forward to him being a teenager! :)

[Beatrice]

Not good to hear that decent op shop clothes get harder to find for older boys, Ceres! I reckon I'd better start sewing more, or learn to knit :lol

I'm guilty of over-buying. I need to grok that I already have SO much stuff that even if I never bought anything else (except to replace consumables like craft stuff occasionally) my kids have enough resources in the house and in the community to live a full, rich life. I'm still trying to work on not consuming stuff as a hobby (op shopping) with the excuse that we "need" more educational resources.

[shaestar]

I find it near impossible to op shop for my older two for two reasons
1) there is not much around
2) taking all 3 kids to an op shop is a nightmare and you need to do it regularly

I tend to buy new for my oldest, knowing that 3 kids will wear it makes it OK for me.

I find one of the best ways we save money is to always be prepared in the way of food when we are off somewhere. Buying food when we are out costs a bomb-and is usually crap.
We love the library and keep track of the free activities on there.
The local pool is nice and cheap and you can go at ace quiet times when most kids are at school.

[Sarasvati]

Making clothes. This is my newest (semi) frugal thing. I say semi because a lot of my fabric is new, and I don't necessarily go for the cheapest fabrics ;). But I also have fabric I've bought from op shops, and clothes and sheets that I repurpose. On my list of projects is Kira's new summer wardrobe (barring shirts which I haven't made before, but I'm in a co-op to get some organic ones which I will jazz up). Hats, bags and dress up stuff for them. I can also make presents for other kids from what I have. So even though the initial outlay is a bit pricey, it's cheaper than buying good quality clothes and I can mend them myself if needed. And my kids are wearing unique clothes yay :lol. And dress up items are ludicrously expensive, but not that expensive to make. I am making Imogen a wizard cape atm that has a lining made from an op shop cushion cover (50c) the main cape made from a fabric remnant (50c) and the hood made from a bit more of the remnant material (bought at full price so $6). Thread was $2 and will last me at least another project. So all up the cape has cost me $9 (or $8 if you take into account that the thread will stretch out to something else, but the cushion cover is also destined for other projects!) To buy a wizard cape new is around $30. That's a pretty big saving (for a super easy sewing project!)

All the other ideas are ones we've used too :). I don't like to scrimp on quality materials for art stuff, (or sewing) as I want things that will last and that encourage an appreciation of the process, but I don't go overboard usually!

[Ceres]

Ceres - I kwym re food - my 7yo boy seems to eat from the time he gets up to when he goes to bed! I'm not looking forward to him being a teenager! :)
I'm hoping they will have jobs when they're teenagers so they'll be able to buy some of their own food. I'm a bit worried about feeding 2 teenage boys!

[Ceres]

I find one of the best ways we save money is to always be prepared in the way of food when we are off somewhere. Buying food when we are out costs a bomb-and is usually crap.
This is my worst financial habit.. packing food to go out for the day just seems like such an effort. I also really need to get a thermos and curb my takeaway coffee habit.

[Sarasvati]

Ceres it's not much of an effort really, I find as long as I know ahead of time WHAT I want to take, it's easy to just get it prepared on autopilot.

[Ceres]

The problem I have is when the kids know there is food available they just spend the whole time asking what there is to eat and a days worth of food is gone in an hour :lol

[homebirthmum]

Re the food thing, i would always make up bread rolls or sandwiches... but now have something waaaaaaaaaaaaaay quicker. Take a lunch box wwith a jar of spread and a butter knife and a large baguette or french stick. Just break of bits and spread them as you need. My kids love it and so do I. I hate buying food when we are out as its so expensive.
Um, what else... we have chookies and eat lots of eggs.
yeh buy quality clothes for the oldest and hand them down.

[Sarasvati]

I have a tupperware lunch box with compartments and have finger food things in them. They generally eat in the car on the way to or from things, so they just run around without eating wherever we go :lol.

[shaestar]

We do the tupperware box too. And they sometimes eat it all in the first hour. I let them know it's their choice but that's all I've bought-and there is always ample for a whole day out. Sometimes I hear a lot of whining about there being nooothiiing toooo eeeaaaat:lemmeoutfor the second half of a day.

[Ceres]

Yes the food whining.. it's the soundtrack of my life lately!

[Mud]

Oh, that's familiar. I usually have to pack all our food, because we can't eat gluten etc etc, so I lug around kilos of food and water (in metal tins/flasks, due to my plastic aversion). Often most of it will get snaffled quite quickly and I end up hungry. Maybe I should try whining.

[GreenGully]

I have found that giving the boys pocket money and being very firm about not buying them anything special from my own funds helps heaps with the whinging and also with the spending. if I have clear rules on what I will and will not spend my money on then it works best. I think that it is helping them understand that the things they whinge for most often are actually luxuries.

[Beatrice]

That works for us too, GG.